Magnum P.I., Cagney and Lacey Reboots Get Pilot Orders on CBS

CBS handed out six pilot orders today, two for highly-anticipated reboots Magnum P.I. and Cagney & Lacey. We first reported on the Magnum P.I. back in October, with this TV reboot set in present day. The official plot rundown reveals this is an, "update of the classic television series set in Hawaii [that] follows Thomas Magnum, a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator."

While it still remains to be seen if this moves forward to series on CBS, this comes over a year after ABC tried a gender-swapped sequel, that followed the continuity of the original series, which starred Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, which followed the adult daughter of Thomas Magnum, Lily Magnum, who returns to Hawaii to take over her father's private investigation firm, but it never made it to series. The original series, created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson, ran from 1980 to 1988 on CBS, and also starred John Hillerman as Higgins, Roger E. Mosley as T.C. and Larry Manetti as Orville 'Rick' Wright. Peter Lenkov and Eric Guggenheim, who produce CBS' Hawaii Five-O reboot, are serving as the showrunners on the update.

The Cagney & Lacey reboot will also be quite similar to the original series, with the primary difference being the show will now be set in Los Angeles, instead of New York City. This TV reboot will follow, "two female police detectives and friends who keep the streets of L.A. safe." The original series starred Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly as the title characters, with the series airing seven seasons between 1981 and 1988. The original series also starred Al Waxman as Lt. Bert Samuels, Martin Kove as Victor Isbecki, John Karlen as Harvey Lacey and Carl Lumbly as Mark Petrie. The new series will have Bridget Carpenter (Friday Night Lights) serving as the showrunner.

CBS also ordered four more original pilots as well. Drama series Chiefs follows, "the professional and personal lives of three driven, successful, but very different women who are each Chiefs of Police of their own precincts in L.A. County." The sitcom Fam follows, "a woman's dreams of an upstanding life with her new fiancé and his upstanding family are dashed when her younger train wreck half-sister comes to live with her to escape their train wreck of a father"). The comedy series Here Comes the Neighborhood centers on "the nicest guy in the Midwest moves his family into a tough neighborhood in L.A. where not everyone appreciates his extreme neighborliness"). The final pilot is another comedy, Pandas in New York, where, "a family of Indian doctors with a successful group practice in New York City embark on a project to arrange their youngest son's life, unaware he's made plans of his own."

CBS ordering these reboots are not surprising, as it's part of a growing trend on the small screen. Just yesterday, ABC issued a pilot order for a gender-swapped reboot of the 1980s series The Greatest American Hero, centering on a 30-year-old Indian-American woman named Meera. Hulu is also rebooting the classic animated series Animaniacs, while CBS All Access is working on a reboot of The Twilight Zone with Get Out director Jordan Peele. Entertainment Weekly broke the news on these TV reboot pilot orders earlier today.